Fender Blues Junior

The features on this Amp. have already been described; so no need to go over that.

I'm writng a 2nd review from the previous one stated in the "triplej@india.com" I wrote in Aug.

I've since decided to sell this amp. as I feel for "live" gig situtions it's just a tad small; it tends to push the speaker when cranked with a drummer up to about 7 - 9 on the master; this forces it to break up way too much and sound rather harsh; at least for the blues rock style that I play.

I don't like using the PA to mic. it up as the venues I play in never have the time /luxury of a sound check, and there is never anyone around to run the board so the levels are never right; so I used this straight off the stage; this is where the prob. begins.

I ended up buying a Fender Hot Rod Deluxe, its the big brother to this amp; and does the job for those medium sized venues w/o the need of a PA mic. so I can use it stright off the stage.

Don't get me wrong, this is a gret amp. for the bedroom and small venues; just not quite large enough for those 200 - 400 people bars w/o a PA mic.

For this I give it a 7.

No probs. here !

Never dealt w/ Fender.

The perfect amp. for the bedroom and small venues; a great tube/ bluesy sound. It lacks the guts for larger bars w/o the PA mic. Perfect for clean tones and low gain stuff; harsh when it comes to anything with any med - high gain material.

All info has been dragged out to death, so I won't bore anyone with the details here.
Mine has a nice tweed covering. Great looking little amp.
I wish it had an effects loop, but it's okay that it doesn't.
I use this amp strickly for home practice, or as a second amp for practice at home thru dual output delay unit. More than enough power for practice at home. Fun to hear two amps, the other is a Fender Deluxe.

I am using this amp stock. It is a shame that everyone needs to 'mod' the thing to death. I have found that most mods do not make the amp sound all that much better, just different. I am only tempted to change speakers, but I do that alot for fun. I do like the sound of Celestion V30's too.
Amp is not noisy. It sounds just fine for what I push through it. I play mainly rock and blues. I use an extensive pedal board set up.
The distortion is not brutal on this amp. That's good. It's fairly clean sounding, and I dirty it up at will through my board. I run the amp fairly clean.

It's a Fender. This one is dependable. It has never given me any trouble.

Never had to deal with them. I deal with the store where I purchased. They deal with Fender if need be. They say that the Fender folks are pretty reliable and pleasant to deal with.

Been playing since 1975. Own a Deluxe and a SuperSonic. All great amps. Own a Carr too, always something wrong with it. Sounds good when it's working, which is not often.
I like my Fender amps. I have owned at least 12 of them over the years. I have never had any problems. Guess I am luckier than most.
I play a Heritage H137 with dualP-90's, a very good Strat, a MusicMan AxisSuperSport, a Gibson Les Paul Jr. double cut single P90, and a home made Tele that is just awesome sounding with SD antiquities in it.
If this amp were lost or stolen? I would end up finding another. I like it's sound, size, look and portability. It's perfect for what I use it for.

I am the proud owner of an ???Acoustic Control Corporation??? 160H guitar amp???. Don???t worry, I???d never heard of them either until I discovered it (covered in dust) in a dingy old guitar shop. It???s a 1981 all valve amp and I personally have never heard an amp that has a smoother overdrive, crisper clean or sweeter reverb. If I were forced to describe it, I???d say a cross between a mesa and a fender twin. But why am I writing this???

Last year I moved to University and needed an amp to bring with me. I didn???t want to bring the ACC amp as it was too heavy, too valuable and irreplaceable. My style is very blues based ??? influences are Clapton, Gilmour, Knopfler, Stephen Stills???you get the idea! After much research (mainly harmony central!) I concluded that the Blues Junior was the way to go, along with a boss blues driver to boost the drive for the heavier stuff. I ordered online and was very excited when it arrived???

The first thing that struck me was the controls facing what I consider the ???wrong way???, in other words the knobs are dials upside down as you face the speaker. Maybe I???m missing the point, but it wasn???t a great first impression...

Now believe me, I wanted to love this amp as much as the ACC, but after many hours of playing it with my Strat, I felt somewhat disappointed. I had two big issues with it; the main one being the reverb which I felt was terrible. I couldn???t find a happy compromise ??? either you couldn???t hear the reverb at all, or it just swamped the whole sound and not in a nice way. Another problem for me was the harshness of the overdrive, with or without the blues driver. It totally lacked the ???smoothness??? that I like. After the hours of playing, I fired up the ACC and realised that it was in a different league altogether.

Having said all this, there is no question that the Blues Junior is ???good??? (the other reviews will fill you in on the good bits), but I wouldn???t say it was great. Perhaps it???s unfair to compare it with a vintage classic, but the blues junior didn???t make my strat ???come alive??? in the way the ACC does. In the end I sent the amp and boss pedal back for a refund and brought the ACC to Uni with me, the sore back is worth it!

I???m really sorry fender ??? you make great guitars but your Blues junior doesn???t quite make the grade in my books. I???m sure with some valve upgrades and other tweaks it would sound better, but I feel that after spending nearly ??400 on a 15watt amp, it shouldn???t need further attention. Finally, please bear in mind that these are only my personal opinions ??? you may love this amp, but don???t make the mistake I made of not trying one out before clicking ???BUY ???.

You know the drill on this. The only reason I don't give it a 10 here is the lack of a "standby" switch.

Beautiful for the bars I play in and the distances I travel. I place it on a bar stool for small bars { 100 - 150 people } and mic. it for med. - larger venues { 250 + }. I travel to and from gigs by bus.
I've read many reviews for mods on it; I don't get it, it's fine right outta the box; "joe beer drinking bar fly" doesn't hear the tone differences so what's the point?

No probs. as yet - had over 100 gigs to date over the past year ...

I live in Korea, is Fender even over here ?

For what I do { three piece blues / rock }, it's just what the doctor ordered ! I don't use any pedals: never have / never will w/ any amp. - use your fingers and heart !

Alright, what to say first. Well I can't really say too much, because there really aren't that many features to this amp. Which isn't really a bad thing. Volume...Gain...3 band EQ...reverb...Middle Boost (of sorts, it just adds a little spank) It was just what I was lookin' for. I'm a gigging country musician in nashville and am a Guitar player for the US Army and well, we play a lot of country tunes. It sings for classic rock and I'm convinced that you could play some heavier rock through it if you wanted. My only real complaint, is about the reverb. Its a little loose sounding to me. But that's fixable at lower levels or through a sound board.

I'm running an American Telecaster with Bill Lawrence naked singles, and it sings. It is a little bright but easily fixed with a simple EQ Pedal of your choice. I also rigged it up to run with an extension cab that I built that has an Eminence Patriot Texas Heat in it. Nothin' but beautiful sustain and country twang comin' out of this amp. I've been playin' around with my pedal board and there isn't a single thing that sounds the least bit questionable. Great Compact Gig amp.

I already use this on gigs without a backup. And all i have to say about the reliablitiy is:

"Its a Fender"

Take it for what its worth.

N/A

overall this is a great little compact gig amp. Very light and it doesn't take up much space. For the money you can't get a better amp. Like I said, the only thing is that its a little too bright. That's it.

Heavily modded. nice if it had a tremelo. Tubes just sound better.

The tone stack has been changed. all now work properly. Bias of el84s now lower and vintage 30 speaker added to a brown tolex amp.
My amp tech is great. He recommended after the mod a 12at7 in the 1st spott. I'm using 3 electroharmonics 12ax7 with good results. the el84s are jj. It could use a slightly bigger cab made of pine. Distortion is good. Clean so so. but u dont use a 15 watt amp for the cleans unless playing fairly soft.

It works bring extra tubes. Nice midranngy with vintage 30. It will do close to stevie but you need to do the mods.

I've been playing 45 year and have many or had many amps. Ive played many boutique and other amps and think with the mods this is a nice sounding amp. about a 9. Its close to a vox or matchless except for the cab.

This is basically the low down on this amp. The electronic components used are generally of secondary quality. The output transformer is the size of a peanut and the speaker is also second grade. The stock tubes flatline and leave this amp sounding dead. The tone and volume pots are flimsy and soldered onto the circuit board.

With that said....the tone you get from a stock BJ is OK. Change the tubes for some decent ones and the amp starts to sound good. The speaker doesn't do a very good job unfortunately and the sound can be harsh and muddy. Change the speaker (Vintage 30) and the improvement is substancial. Tones can still be harsh and the driving the preamp hard still has some issues. Change the inferior output transformer to something that resembles an electric component. Change the capacitors in the tone stack to get a functional EQ and the change is complete. With these changes the definition when driving the pre-amp hard is superb, fantastic handling of louder tones, mean attack and of course the clarity of the cleans is breath taking. Stock-OK Upgraded-Wow

Reliability? I don't think so. But then again, as long as you don't let heavy stuff fall on the controls, because this will break the circuit board, you should be pretty right. Unless you??re an upcoming sex pistol of course.

It's a company, I'm hoping they have customer service.

It's a good amp at the price. And when you're sick and tired of playing a good amp, you can upgrade (speaker and output transformer...the 2 most important) then you have a great amp.

I???m reviewing a BJ that I purchased new in late 2006 and have subsequently modded. I originally bought the amp because I wanted a low-wattage tube amp for home and rehearsal use. My thinking was that if I could use it at small gigs it would be a bonus. I also have a hand-made, point-to-point ???63 Vibroverb clone which is my main gigging amp. I play classic rock and R&B on an Ernie Ball/Music Man Silhouette Special with single-coils.

Well, the stock amp only made it out to 1 rehearsal. It was too thin sounding??? no depth, for lack of a better word. I also found that the overdrive was quite harsh with the pre-amp volume cranked (although I typically run my amp clean and rely on my CMATMODS Signa Drive and JAM Red Muck for overdrive/distortion).

The first mod I made was to intall an Avatar Hellatone 30 speaker (re-branded Celestion G12H). This seemed to add some fullness as the speaker is warmer and smoother, with better bottom-end than the stock Emminence.

But the amp again only made it out to 1 rehearsal as I felt it was still lacking something. I continued to use the amp at home, although the sound quality gradually deteriorated over time. As it turns out the amp was cooking the output tubes because the bias is set very hot on the stock amp.

I considered dumping the amp, but instead did some research on mods and decided to try a number of the BillM mods (lowered bias and tone-stack mods), as well as a new Mercury Magnetics output transformer. I took the amp to John Fletcher ??? a tech here in Toronto ??? and had him make the changes along with a new set of tubes (a Tung-Sol for the first 12AX7 and JJ???s in the rest of the 12AX7???s and EL84???s).

Sound quality is such a subjective thing, isn???t it? Nevertheless, the modded amp sounds significantly better to my ears. In general, the amp sounds warmer, fuller and??? ballsier.

So??? was it the BillM mods that did the trick? The output transformer? The tubes?

The tone-stack mods seem to have made the controls more effective. The amp is capable of producing more bass (limited by the size of the cabinet, of course) and I have more control over the mids.

With the pre-amp volume cranked, the overdrive is much smoother, less harsh. I???m thinking that???s the new pre-amp tubes.

According to Mercury Magnetics marketing hype, the single most important mod you can make to any amp is upgraded transformers. As I understanding it, the stock output transformer is a piece of junk, so the new one is bound to be an improvement. I???m going to attribute the ballsier sound to the transformer.

There seems to be quite a controversy over lowering the bias. All I can say is the improvement resulting from the other mods overshadows any possible negative impact and the EL84???s should last a lot longer!

Finally, although it never bothered me, the stock BJ had a fair amount of hum. The hum is significantly reduced since the mods.

I guess that I could have done all the mods separately to assess the impact of each, but I have neither the time nor the inclination. I just wanted a usable amp and that???s what I???ve got!

I???m really enjoying the amp at home and it has made it out to both rehearsals since being modded. Will it replace the Vibroverb at gigs? Probably not, although I may use it at our next gig, which is a small, 100 seat venue. The fact that I???m even considering using the BJ over the Vibroverb says something (possibly, that I???m crazy!).

The stock amp cooked tubes pretty quickly, but no problems other than that. I???ve recently had the mods done, so it???s too soon to comment on reliability, although John Fletcher???s work is top-notch!

I???ve never dealt with Fender, so I can???t comment. On the other hand, John Fletcher is great and I highly recommend him. You can get in touch with him through the Twelfth Fret in Toronto.

I can???t give the modded BJ a 10, but it???s a solid 8, which is a vast improvement over the stock amp.

15 watts made in Mexico. I had mine modded by The Ampsmith. Enough power for anywhere I play. I always leave the fat boost on.

It sounds great with a strat but with an es-335 gibson it sounds great. Very grindy. I tried lots of speakers but settled on a celestion vintage 30 (60 Watts). I tried alnico blue, a couple of different jensens and a webber 30 watt pre-rola ceramic 12 and like the vintage 30 best. There is a mid hump but I like it that way. Great for bluesy grindy fedbacky psychodelic stuff. Lots of grind and shimmer. My tech biased the tubes cooler. JJ el84s. He put in a 12 at7 inverter but it sounds good with 3 12ax7 electro harmonic tubes as well. I tried new old stock 12 ax7s and 12 ay7 and the eh 12ax7's sound just as good and they are newer. My tech converted the t,m,b so they are all completely controlable. He did something else that I am unsure of but it sounds great.

Bring extra tubes. No problems only been converted for a month or two.

I take it to the Ampsmith and he makes it sound better than stock. I have 10 amps this one is the one I take usually to a gig. I replaced the reverb with a ruby tank but went back to the original as it was to fendery and with high gain it was too much reverb. The ruby is good if you play clean with a typical fendr sound. I don't generally play too clean.

I've been playing 45 years. I have played a lot of amps. This is up with the best for sound maybe not quality. It is not point to point or hand wired. The potentiameters seem flimsy as does the input jack. Other then that it is a great grab and go amp. You dont even need overdrive pedals.

The features are all fender like really good for clean bluesy sounds.

The sound quality is really good.The sound that comes out is crystal clear (you don't have any distortion options anyway..).Even if you you want to use it together with some pedals for a heavier sound, it works cause the core of this amp is clarity...So i would suggest to try it together with some effects etc and see how it sounds.
I bought it for a practice amp but as it turned out, its power is enough for small performances.

I play 6 months already so far so good.The amp seems pretty solid together with the knobs.The only thing worth mentioning is that the 3 preamp tubes don't seem to have something to hold them in position so its better to take them off in case of carrying.

Didn't need them so far

I currently own an Epiphone LP custom and a modified Yamaha Pacifica.
If it was stolen i would instantly buy the same fantastic amp.
I just love the bluesy and clear sound that comes out of this amp.